EDITORIAL: Meth fight faces uphill battle in legislature

Lawmakers in Tennessee face an interesting conundrum when it comes to efforts to curb methamphetamine use - nay, abuse - while protecting consumers' rights.

Police want tougher laws to limit access to ingredients, namely pseudoephedrine, used in the meth-making process. Consumers rely on pseudoephedrine for allergy, sinus and cold relief and feel they shouldn't be treated like criminals in their fight against the common cold.

A bill in the legislature that would have made pseudoephedrine a prescription-only drug has been killed.

The result, police say, is that meth users/makers are winning.

Consumers already have to ask for over-the-counter medications containing pseudoephedrine from pharmacists and are limited in the amount of pills they can buy - no more than 9 grams or 300 pills per month based on a typical 30 mg dose of pseudoephedrine. Consumers are also inconvenienced by having their driver's license information input into a computer to help ensure they are not exceeding their monthly limit.

Unfortunately, the system has failed to make a dent in methamphetamine lab incidents.

The problem, as outlined by Tommy Farmer, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Methamphetamine and Pharmaceutical Task Force, is that meth users are more creative than that. They routinely recruit multiple buyers to each purchase the legal limit of pseudoephedrine and then turn it over to the meth cook. Dubbed smurfers, they'll use fake driver's licenses and recruit the homeless, unwitting elderly or even college kids. A 2011 sting operation in Nashville netted nearly 40 suspected smurfers.

Limiting pseudoephedrine-based drugs to prescriptions only, police say, would curtail that circumvention of the law and reduce meth use. Police point to other states with similar laws as proof of their effectiveness.

State Rep. Tony Shipley, chairman of the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, said there was not enough support for the measure, particularly because the law could have made it more inconvenient for law-abiding citizens.

It's a legitimate concern. People have a right to medicines that can help them without having to be treated like criminals But at the same time, if such steps help curtail a serious drug abuse problem that winds up costing all taxpayers down the line, the inconvenience may be worth it.

As an alternative, Shipley has filed a bill that would further limit quantities of pseudoephedrine that can be sold to consumers to 7.2 grams per month or about 240 pills. The bill remains alive and moving through legislative committees.

None of the above proposals or measures already in effect include increasing awareness to the dangers of meth.

And in that sense, we are all losers.

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EDITORIAL: Meth fight faces uphill battle in legislature

Lawmakers in Tennessee face an interesting conundrum when it comes to efforts to curb methamphetamine use ? nay, abuse ? while protecting consumers' rights.